Bungie, owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment, has won millions of dollars in lawsuits against two companies that sold cheat programs for its popular title, Destiny 2. Bungie was awarded $6.7 million in a lawsuit against India-based Lavicheats, operated by Kunal Bansal, and $12 million in a lawsuit against Romanian cheat seller Mihai Claudiu-Florentin, who ran VeteranCheats. Both companies provided subscription-based hacks for various multiplayer video games.
Bungie’s suits against the cheat sellers alleged numerous copyright and trademark violations, including breaches of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Washington State Consumer Protection Act. The court approved Bungie’s motion for default judgment on the majority of the terms requested, entering a permanent injunction against the defendants.
These hacks violate most games’ terms of service, and players caught using them risk having their accounts suspended or banned. The hacks provided by Lavicheats and VeteranCheats granted users an unfair competitive advantage in multiplayer modes, such as auto-targeting and player detection. Though Lavicheats no longer offers Destiny 2 cheats, it still sells hacks for other popular titles like Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Vanguard, Escape from Tarkov, and Sea of Thieves.
Bungie has been vigorously pursuing legal action against third-party cheat sellers, having also won suits against AimJunkies earlier this year, with courts awarding $4.3 million in damages to Bungie. As the company continues to tackle Destiny 2 cheaters, it has spent approximately $2 million on anti-cheating efforts, including staffing and software.